The 27th Biggest Lie In Blogging

I am typing slowly so that the social media experts who provide stellar advice to write epic content and to make sure it is not any longer than x number of words can keep up.

Unfortunately they probably won’t feel the snark dripping off that first sentence or see the sneer on my lips. Sorry mom, I am not being nice here but these people are peddling snake oil and it makes me crazy.

I Hate Your Epic Content

Every time I read a post where someone talks about writing epic content I want to use their head to clean the toilets at Grand Central Station. The word is meaningless, epic that is.

We killed it through inappropriate and over use.

Don’t ask me to explain why I hate your epic content. Don’t ask me to point out that so much of it is based upon your personal preference and not upon metrics we can discuss or upon facts/studies we can see.

Don’t ask me to point out that you and the echo chamber you belong to post the same old crap and never provide any new insight or analysis. If you are not coming up with something new and useful it is highly unlikely that it can be called epic.

Stop Making Up Crap About How Long Posts Should Be

The 27th biggest lie in blogging is the one where bloggers try to instruct you about how long posts should be. This idea that people won’t read more than 500 words is nonsense and patently false.

If you provide useful and interesting content people will take the time to read it.

People still read books and they read ones that aren’t filled with pictures and popups. If they’ll read 500 pages of erotica (50 Shades Of Grey) they’ll read 800 words about how to write a speech for your son’s Bar Mitzvah, how to build a birdhouse or the 25 most important plugins for your blog.

There is no single path to success in social media.

I don’t particularly care how you go about your business other than if you are promoting misinformation. FWIW, my stats show that more than 1/3rd of my readers spend more than 5 minutes on the blog.

That is a healthy chunk of time, especially for a society that has a short attention span.

Maybe it is because I produce epic content. 😉